Phoenix, Ariz., March 15, 2011. Today, two bills that would make Arizona roads safer made progress at the state legislature. HB 2452, which would improve child passenger restraint requirements, cleared the House with a vote of 32 to 24. Meanwhile, SB 1538, a bill that would place a ban on texting while driving, passed out of the Senate with an 18 to 12 vote. The bills will now proceed to the Senate and House, respectively, for consideration.

“We are excited to see that our state legislators recognize the gravity of these two issues and are advancing them forward,” said Linda Gorman, director of communications and public affairs for AAA Arizona. “Improving our child passenger safety laws and banning texting while driving are important measures our state needs to take to improve public safety on our roads.”

Under Arizona’s current child passenger law, children can be moved from a car seat to an adult seat belt at the age of 5. However, children using an adult seat belt without a booster seat can suffer from serious head, spine and abdominal injuries, slip out of the belt, or even be ejected from the vehicle in the event of a crash.

However, with proper use of a safety seat, a child’s fatality risk can be reduced up to 71 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Additional research by the agency also indicates that using a booster seat with a seat belt as opposed to using a seat belt alone can reduce a child’s injury risk in a crash by up to 59 percent.

“By following current Arizona law, parents may unknowingly put their child’s safety in jeopardy,” said Gorman. “If we adopt this new legislation, we can help parents keep their children safe with the most up-to-date child passenger safety research available.”

Text messaging while driving, another threat on today’s roads, is the most dangerous distraction a motorist can engage in behind the wheel, according to AAA. Drivers who text message are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or narrowly avoid one, according to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Ninety percent of Arizonans said they would support a texting while driving ban in a survey conducted by Behavior Research Center last year. However, other than in the city of Phoenix, there are no laws that restrict motorists from texting while driving in Arizona.

AAA is working to pass laws banning text messaging by drivers in all 50 states by 2013. To date, 30 states and the District of Columbia have laws that address text messaging by all drivers, and two more states have laws that prohibit teens or other new drivers from texting while driving.

AAA tracks transportation bills being considered during the 2011 Arizona legislature at http://www.az.aaa.com/news/legislativenews.htm.